STRUCTURAL DIVISION, ASCE Report on Activities FY96 Report on Plans FY97 Committee on: Emerging Computing Technology TAC: Analysis and Computation Submitted by: James H. Garrett, Jr., Chair Date: March 12, 1996 ************************************************************* I. Administration A. Membership (number of committee members): 13 members 2 nonmember advisors B. Meetings: 1. Meetings held during FY96: - April 12, 1996, Chicago, IL - June 19, 1996, Anaheim, CA 2. Meetings planned for FY 96 (date location) - April 1997, Portland, OR - June 1997, At the TCCP 4th Computing Congress C. Subcommittee and Task Committees (reporting to this committee): None II. Papers in FY95 (10/94 - 9/95) Journal of Structural Engineering A. Number of papers reviewed for Journal: 0 as committee activity B. Number of Papers published in Journal: 0 as committee activity III. Publications (Special Publications, Manuals, other) A. Publications completed during FY96 (10/95 - 10/96) (title, where and when published) - ASCE Monograph on Neural Networks in Civil Engineering The co-editors of this monograph are: Nabil Kartam (U. Maryland), Ian Flood (U. Maryland), and Jim Garrett. The first two editors are representing the ASCE/TCCP-AI and Expert Systems Committee and Jim Garrett is representing the ASCE/SD-ECT Committee. B. Publications in preparation (title, expected completion date) - IEEE Expert Magazine: Special Track on Applications of AI in Civil Engineering This special track is a series of papers on applications of AI to Civil Engineering problems. It is being co-edited by Jim Garrett (representing ASCE/SD-ECT Committee) and Ian Smith (from EPFL representing the European counterpart of this committee, EG-SEA-AI). We were invited to do this by the editor of the IEEE Expert Magazine and felt it was an excellent opportunity to illustrate the many exciting and very useful applications of AI in Civil Engineering. Expected Publication Date: June 1996 C. Publications planned for the future (topic, expected starting date) - An ASCE monograph on Logic Programming is planned for the year 1997. IV. Technical Sessions (ASCE Annual Convention, Structures Congresses, Specialty Conferences, other meetings) A. Sessions held during FY96 (10/95 - 9/96) - Technical Session in Structures Congress XIV April 1996, Chicago, IL "Computational Support for Intelligent Structures" Stuart Chen, State University of New York at Buffalo, and - Technical Session in Structures Congress XIV April 1996, Chicago, IL "Demystifying the Alphabet Soup of Emerging Computing Technology" John Baugh, North Carolina State University Jim Garrett, Carnegie Mellon University - Technical Session in Structures Congress XIV April 1996, Chicago, IL "Computer Models for the Life Cycle of Building Projects" Meg Neggers, Premisys Corp. - Technical Session in Structures Congress XIV April 1996, Chicago, IL "Emerging Computing Technology in Practice" Mohamed Elkordy, New York Department of Transportation - Tutorial Session in Structures Congress XIV April 1996, Chicago, IL "Object-Oriented Programming Techniques" Meg Neggers, Premisys Corp. B. Sessions Planned for FY97 (10/96 - 9/97) "Virtual Reality Applications in Structural and Civil Engineering" Jim Garrett and George Turkiyyah "New Technologies for Classification of Data" Hani Melhem C. Sessions Planned for the Future: - Sessions and workshops are being planned for both the 1998 World Structures Congress. We will meet in April to discuss possible session topics to propose to the chair of this congress V. Other activities (type of activities, action completed or planned) A. Completed during FY96 (10/95 - 10/96) - We now have a World Wide Web homepage that describes the mission of the committee and is a mechanism by which other information can be disseminated. The URL for this homepage is: http://www.ce.cmu.edu/~garrett/ect/ - International joint activity with the European community. Ian Smith, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is the Chair of the European Group for Structural Engineering Applications of AI, EG-SEA-AI (~60 persons). This group stemmed for the somewhat fragmented situation in Europe in AI research and development. Smith and J. Garrett are keeping contacts through e-mail and other means for possible joint activity between this group and the ECT. A workshop is being held in August 1996, sponsored by EG-SEA-AI, and several ECT members will participate by attending and presenting papers at the workshop. B. Planned for FY97 - We will continue to develop our WWW Homepage and investigate other mechanisms on the WWW that could be of benefit to the Structural Engineering community. By maintaining a presence on the Web, we will be able to quickly disseminate information and possibly provide other services. The nature and extent of these services will be investigated as part of this committee's activities. - Multimedia products are being considered by the committee for educational purposes (ASCE continuing education department). This idea was proposed as an activity for last 1996, but was tabled. We will again discuss this concept at our next meeting to see if we might begin to develop several such products in conjunction with other activities. C. Planned for the future - Due to the planned change of leadership that will occur in this coming year, we have not set goals for beyond 1997 at this time. VI. Plans for the Future (goals, areas of opportunity, etc.) - Due to the planned change of leadership that will occur in this coming year, we have not set goals for beyond 1997 at this time. At our meeting in April and June, we will first identify the next leader of this committee. At that point, we will discuss the opportunities we will pursue for the next few years under this new leadership. - A few areas that we might attempt to bring to the attention of the structural engineering community are: networked collaborative design support environments, integrated support for usage of engineering design codes and standards in design systems, physical- based virtual reality, intelligent support for structural configuration and structural modeling. The specific areas that will be emphasized by this committee in the future are yet to be determined. VII. List activities that have been delayed or tabled due to lack of funding. - None.